Em oi! #368: I guess maybe I am, actually

“Gold Digger” by Kanye West (feat. Jamie Foxx) is actually a pretty good song, using a back riff reminiscent of Ray Charles (I cannot claim that this came to me spontaneously; I heard an NPR program on Ray Charles the other day and the song got mentioned). Before the other day, I’d only heard it made fun of on the Daily Show. Anyway, I thought maybe I would try to write some lyrics that were a bit less…demeaning? (Actually I haven’t decided if I think the lyrics are demeaning or just kind of cynical. Hah.)

Clearly, I’m bound for the big time with this lyrics-writing business.

I have now completed the paper that was preoccupying me for the last two weeks (actually the last six months, but there were times I wasn’t actively working on it). Hopefully by December I will have finished all my revisions and submitted it for consideration for the printed volume from the conference, and then I can stop thinking about it before it turns into a dissertation. Because it is that way headed. Feh.

I’m on taper for the Milwaukee Marathon next week, which is great fun. Um, sort of. In general, I am feeling a lot less taper madness than usual, possibly because I am using a different tapering strategy (something more like this). But with the stress for the conference, I did wind up running (reduced) mileage every day last week, instead of taking off Monday and Friday like I am supposed to. And I am feeling fussy about my weight again…this is something I go through about a hundred times per year, and I know I will be back to normal within a few weeks of the race, but man. But as B put it this morning, the week before a marathon is not the time to decide to lose weight. And I have noticed, with an increase in sleep and in calorie intake, that my running is faster and that I feel stronger. So maybe I’ve put on some muscle and it’s not a bad thing.

I am going to go do my work now. I’ll be back next week with a race report, and hopefully a new comic too. Maybe some photos later in the week if I’m lucky. Lots of exciting things* have come up in the last couple of weeks, but most of them I can’t talk about yet. But watch this space.

We’ll file this comic under TN420 L86 2012 for Mining engineering. Metallurgy–Ore deposits and mining of particular metals–Gold and silver ore deposits and mining. Precious metals–Gold ore deposits and mining–General works.

* Exciting things in a professional capacity. I’m still not pregnant.